No. 6 Jessica Pegula is having her best Grand Slam run at 30 years old, but to earn her first major title she will have to get past world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka during the US Open final on Saturday. The match is set to start at 4 p.m. ET at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Pegula has struggled with multiple injuries through her career and even withdrew from this year’s French Open. This week, she admitted that making it this far never even crossed her mind.
“It’s amazing. It’s a childhood dream,” Pegula said. “If you would have told me at the beginning of the year I’d be in the finals of the U.S. Open, I would have laughed so hard, because that just was where my head was — not thinking that I would be here.”
Pegula entered this tournament with a 0-6 record in quarterfinals, but she broke through this time around with a straight set victory against world No. 1 Iga Swiatek. Pegula then came out “flat” against Karolina Muchova during the semifinals, but she eventually found her rhythm and pulled off an impressive 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 comeback win.
She has a lot of momentum coming into Saturday as she has won 15 of her last 16 matches, but coincidentally that lone loss was against Sabalenka in the Cincinnati Open…
